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The báhay kúbo, kubo, or payág (in the Visayan languages), is a type of stilt house indigenous to the Philippines.Lee, Jonathan H. X., Encyclopedia of Asian American folklore and folklife, Vol. 1. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2011. 369. It is the traditional basic design of houses among almost all the lowland Christian culture. throughout the Philippines. Often serving as an icon of Philippine culture, its design heavily influenced the Spanish colonial-era bahay na bato architecture.
The English term nipa hut is also usually used interchangeably with báhay kúbo, though not all báhay kúbo use nipa palm materials or are . Both "nipa hut" and báhay kúbo are also used incorrectly to refer to similar but different vernacular architecture in the Philippines.
The term "nipa hut", introduced during the Philippines' American colonial era, refers to the hut version of bahay kubo. While Nypa fruticans leaves were the thatching ( pawid) material often used for the roofs, not all bahay kubo are huts or used nipa materials.
They were designed to endure the climate and environment of the Philippines. These structures were temporary, made from plant materials like bamboo. The accessibility of the materials made it easier to rebuild when damaged by a storm or earthquake.
Christianized peoples such as the Tagalogs, Visayans, Ilocanos, Kapampangans, Bicolanos, Cagayanons, Zambals, Pangasinenses, Ivatans, Mestizos, Criollos, Chinese and Japanese were send to live in the lowlands. This established a community with most population of Austronesian origin, each having their own distinct traditions of Austronesian architecture, dating back even before the Hispanic period. They collectively evolved a style of construction that soon became synonymous with the christian lowland culture architecture known as bahay kubo.
Appearance varies from simple , later known by the Americans as nipa huts, to mansions like bahay na bato. Architectural designs and furnishings varied from standard Filipino, Chinese, Americas, European to eclectic.
The new community also setup made construction using heavier, more permanent materials desirable. Some of these materials included bricks, mortar, tiles and stone.
Finding European construction styles impractical in local conditions, Spanish and Filipino builders quickly adapted the characteristics of the bahay kubo and combined it with Spanish architectural style.
The bahay na bato, followed the nipa hut's arrangements such as open ventilation and elevated apartments. It was popular among the elite or middle class and integrated the characteristics of the nipa hut with the style, culture, and technology of Spanish architecture. The differences between the two houses were their foundational materials. The bahay na bato was constructed out of brick and stone rather than the traditional bamboo materials. It is a mixture of native Filipino and Spanish influences.
During the 19th century, wealthy Filipinos built houses with solid stone foundations or brick lower walls, and overhanging. Wooden upper story/stories with balustrades. The ventanillas and capiz-shell sliding windows were both native Filipino influences on the design. The thatched nipa roof ( pawid) is often replaced with Spanish-style curved clay tiles known as teja de curva. Today these houses are more commonly called ancestral houses.
The main purpose of being raised on stilts is to create a buffer area for rising waters during floods and to prevent pests such as rats from getting up to the living area.
The haligi are connected to each other by horizontal bamboo beams known as the yawi. The yawi in turn are overlaid with secondary bamboo beams known as the patukuran; these in turn are fitted to the soleras, which are bamboo beams laid down apart as to support the bamboo slat floor. Depending on the size of the house, these beams can be a single bamboo pole, or multiple tied together. The cube shape distinctive of the bahay kubo arises from the fact that it is easiest to pre-build the walls and then attach them to the wooden stilt-posts that serve as the corners of the house. The construction of a bahay kubo is therefore usually modular, with the wooden stilts established first, a floor frame built next, then wall frames, and finally, the roof.
Bahay kubo are traditionally built using only shaped and fitted wood or bamboo and lashings, with no use of nails whatsoever.
The wall panels can be made from a variety of light materials. The most common is woven bamboo strips known as amakan or sawali. They can also be panels known as pawid, which are made from cogon grass, anahaw, or nipa palm leaves, like the roof. Certain areas can also be made from loosely woven bamboo latticework known as sala-sala, which grants a degree of privacy while still allowing inhabitants to see outside.
In temporary shelters, the walls can also be made from simple panels made from halved coconut palm fronds whose leaves are then woven together. This type of panels are known as sulirap and is somewhat a combination of sala-sala and sawali in functionality, but are much more perishable.
The wall panels let some coolness flow naturally through them during hot times and keep warmth in during the cold wet season.
In larger examples, the large upper windows may be augmented with smaller windows called ventanillas (Spanish for "little window") underneath, which can be opened for ventilation to let in additional air on especially hot days.
The roof itself is typically thatch, made from either cogon grass, nipa palm leaves, or anahaw leaves. Another traditional roofing material is known as kalaka (Philippine Spanish: calaca). Kalaka are halved bamboo sections that are fitted together alternately, similar to Spanish clay roof tiles. Though unlike clay tiles, each kalaka section spans the entire slope of the roof. The curving surfaces of the bamboo halves serve as channels for rainwater.
The traditional roof shape of the bahay kubo is tall and steeply pitched, with an apex called the "angkub" and long eaves descending from it. A tall roof creates space above the living area through which warm air could rise, giving the bahay kubo a natural cooling effect even during the dry season. The steep pitch allows water to flow down quickly at the height of the monsoon season while the long eaves give people a limited space to move about around the house's exterior when it rains. The steep pitch of the roofs is often used to explain why many bahay kubo survived the ash fall from the Mount Pinatubo eruption, when more 'modern' houses collapsed from the weight of the ash.
The bulwagan contains the living, dining, cooking, and sleeping areas of the house. It is traditionally a single multi-purpose open room. The bulwagan is designed to let in as much fresh air and natural light as possible. Smaller bahay kubo will often have bamboo slat floors (known as the sahig) which allow cool air to flow into the living space from the silong below (in which case the silong is not usually used for items which produce strong smells). A bahay kubo may be built without an atip (ceiling) so that hot air can rise straight into the large area just beneath the roof and out through strategically placed vents.
For daily activities like sleeping, sitting, or eating, the sahig are overlaid with banig mats made from woven pandanus or sedge leaves (among other materials).
The abuhan (lit. "ash area") is an elevated area of the floor packed with soil. This area contains the fireplace with clay or stone on which various cooking wares (like the palayok and the kawali) are placed to cook food. The abuhan also features various open shelves for storing firewood and cooking implements, as well as racks above the cooking area for smoking and preserving fish or meat (tinapa or tapa) or drying herbs.
The batalán (also called the pantaw), on the other hand, is a section of the main floor that projects outward from the main walls. It functions as the "wet area" of the house and as such has looser floorboards than the main living area to drain water faster. It contains water containers (tapayan]] or balanga) which are used for washing cooking implements, washing the hands/feet, or bathing children. It typically includes a secondary door with stairs leading outside as well as an elevated "sink" area. Some batalán can also be built on the ground level, with internal stairs connecting it to the main living area.
In modern bahay kubo designs, the abuhan is typically combined with the batalán. Modern batalán also usually have additional toilet and bathing facilities; though in pre-colonial times, toilets and bathing areas were generally not part of the main bahay kubo structure.
Batalán used for cooking and washing dishes are known as banggéra in Philippine Spanish (also bánggerahán, banguerahán or pingganan). It is named after the tapayan earthen water-jars or pingan (meaning "Tableware").
The entire silong is usually (but not always) enclosed by a loosely-spaced bamboo or wooden latticework or fence.
The song is a generalization of what a nipa hut would have looked like during the pre-colonial era: a house surrounded by locally cultivated plants. This does not take into account the early and diverse variants of native royalties, particularly those of the Mindanao region which has heavy Islamic architectural influences.
The bahay kubo also inspired architects such as Francisco Mañosa and Leandro Locsin by incorporating elements of the bahay na bato into their own designs especially seen in Cultural Center of the Philippines, National Arts Center, Coconut Palace, and Light Rail Transit stations.
These include the jinjin, kamadid, and rahaung of the Ivatan people; the balai and binuron of the Isnag people; the afung (also fayu or katyufong), pabafunan, and ator of the Bontoc people; the bale or fale of the Ifugao people; the foruy and finaryon (also binayon), of the Kalinga people; the baey, binangiyan, and tinokbob of the Kankanaey people; the babayan of the Ibaloi people; the baley of the Matigsalug people; the binanwa of the Ata Manobo; the bolloy of the Klata Manobo; the baoy of the Obo Manobo; the bale of the Bagobo Tagabawa; the bong-gumne of the Blaan people; the uyaanan of the Mansaka people; the guno-bong of the Tboli people; the lawig, mala-a-walai, langgal, lamin, and torogan of the Maranao people; the bay sinug of the Tausug people; the lumah of the Yakan people; and the balay of the Sama-Bajau people, among others.
Versions of the báhay kúbo (and other native houses) built on very tall trees are also common among some ethnic groups in the Philippines, often referred to in European literature as "".
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